


Paris is Worth a Mathieu

by YamiHeart



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: M/M, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-19
Packaged: 2018-04-15 15:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4611138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YamiHeart/pseuds/YamiHeart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last thing a veteran of the Great War wants to see is his loved one going back to Europe to clean up his mess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paris is Worth a Mathieu

_November 1944, Quebec_

“You can’t go.”

“I don’t have a choice.”

“Yes you do! We were the ones who were against this! It was those damn English-speakers who voted for this! Make them go fight in godforsaken Europe!”

Mathieu sighed. “It’s random, Francois. Besides, in a nation this size there are only so many healthy young men to pick from.”

Francois leaned on the desk in Mathieu’s bedroom for support as his continued frustration knocked the strength out of his body. “But you are hardly young anymore! You will be thirty next year!”

“That’s still young compared to some.”

“Young? They call  _that_ young?” Francois snorted. “That is nothing. Twenty-one is young. Saying you are twenty-one when you are actually seventeen is young. There must be a healthy seventeen-year-old around who can take your place!”

Mathieu went to his closet, pulled out some nice shirts and some decent pants, and then shoved them into the bag on his bed. “They need as many men as they can get after Italy and D-Day, Francois. Besides, now that the Allies have taken Paris, the war’s almost over. We just need one last push.”

“They must have said that a dozen times to me in the trenches. One last push, and the Germans will have no choice but to surrender! One last push, and we will be back home celebrated as heroes! One last push, and it will all be over!” Francois glared. “No war is won on the promise of pushes.”

“But this war isn’t  _your_  war!” Mathieu’s voice finally gained some force as his own frustration grew. “There aren’t any trenches, and they haven’t been promising a swift victory!”

“No, there aren’t trenches. There’s something  _worse_.”

“Like _what?_ ”

“I do not know! I can just feel there is something darker lurking in Europe right now that we are not aware of!”

Mathieu took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Francois, I’m sorry, but I really don’t have time for this right now.” He zipped up his bag and threw it over his shoulder. “I have to get to the recruitment office before noon, or they’ll come get me themselves.”

A flash of panic lit up Francois’ face. “Tell them you can’t go! Tell them you’ve come down with the Spanish Flu! If you tell them that, they will not let you within two-hundred miles of any military base!”

“I’m not sick, and there’s no point in trying to say I am.”

“Well then…then…” Francois gripped the desk desperately. “Tell them the truth! Tell them we are in love!”

“Francois…”

“Tell them we have sex!”

“Francois.”

“I will have sex with you right there on the floor of the recruitment office if they do not believe you!”

“Francois! That’s enough!”

“No! _No it is not!_ ” Angry tears, frustrated tears, and desperate tears all began to fall from Francois’ eyes. “I did not leave Europe after the Great War only to watch the one I love return to clean up my countrymen’s mess! I did not get gassed and shot at for two years for you to pick up a gun and do the same! I did not accumulate memories that make me wake up at night screaming to stay up late worrying about you becoming another tally on the body count! I did not-!”

The Frenchman’s cries were cut short when his lungs, ravaged by the gasses that had settled in his trenches thirty years earlier, finally gave out and forced him into a coughing fit. As his body curled in on itself, Mathieu immediately dropped his bag and went to his side to hold him. Despite being forty-six years old, the Frenchman clung to the front of the Canadian’s shirt and continued to cry like a desperate child.

“Francois,” Mathieu murmured as he gently rubbed the Frenchman’s back. “You need to calm down. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“I-I am scared,” Francois hiccuped. “I entered war thinking it was glorious; n-now I know just how terrible it can be. I do not want to see you anywhere near a b-battlefield!”

“Hey.” Mathieu pulled back just enough to cradle Francois’ cheek in his hand. “I’m scared, too. Fuck, I’m terrified. I don’t want to go to war, I don’t want to fight. I don’t want to watch people who are younger than me die.” His tears got pushed out of his eyes when a small smile came to his lips. “But there is one thing I want to do that isn’t possible while Hitler is in charge. One day, I want to take you back to the city you love so much, and let you eat the food you miss so much, and maybe even kiss you when no one is looking. Paris is free, and I want to keep it that way so that we can see it together.”

Francois collapsed into Mathieu, completely unable to support himself any longer. “I would rather see Paris bombed from the face of this Earth than lose you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Historical Notes:
> 
> “Paris is Worth a Mathieu”- a small play on the famous quote, “Paris is worth a mass” said by King Henry IV when he converted to Catholicism. Since the story doesn’t tell you what happens to Mathieu, perhaps the title gives it away?
> 
> “It was those damn English-speakers who voted for this!”- Overseas military conscription in Canada was a debated topic during WWII. According to Wikipedia (which, I admit, is not the most reliable source, but I think it’s alright for a little drabble like this), around 83% of English Canadians were in favor of the conscription while nearly 73% of the French Canadians opposed even voting on the issue at all in 1942.
> 
> “Twenty-one is young.”- As far as I can tell, in WWI the French were recruiting, at the youngest, twenty-one-year-olds. Of course, there were men like Francois who lied and got in anyway. 
> 
> “There’s something worse.”- This might be a bit incorrect for Francois to say, seeing as he us unknowingly referring to the Concentration Camps, but the first one was liberated by the Soviets in July, 1944, and throughout the war there were always “rumors”. It’s possible his suspicion isn’t completely out there for the time period.
> 
> “Tell them you’ve come down with the Spanish Flu!”- The Spanish Flu epidemic that struck the world in 1918 killed more people than WWI itself. In places such as the USA, more soldiers died of the disease than in combat. If someone showed up and said they had the Spanish Flu in 1944, I suspect there would be at least some panic. 
> 
> There are some other notes I could make too, but I’m laaaaaazy.


End file.
